Long before City Councilman Dennis P. Gallagher’s resignation on Monday, the race to succeed him was already off to a rollicking start. And now, with Mr. Gallagher set to leave the Council on April 18, the candidates are openly raising money and seeking support in their Queens district in a not-altogether friendly manner.
Mr. Gallagher, a Republican who was elected to the Council in 2001, pleaded guilty on Monday to two misdemeanors, admitting that he sexually abused a woman in his district office in Middle Village, Queens, last summer while he was intoxicated.
The Republicans are eager to hold on to the seat –- one of only three they hold in the 51-member City Council. And the Democrats are also eager to expand their quest to make the Council a nearly exclusively Democratic club.
But Mr. Gallagher’s resignation will trigger a special election, which is a far different affair from the normal primary races where the Democrats and Republicans nominate their respective choices. The election to succeed Mr. Gallagher is a non-partisan one, meaning that candidates are forbidden from using the names of established political parties.
Anyone can run who is a resident of the district — which includes Middle Village, Ridgewood and Glendale — and who collects 2,700 valid signatures from anyone in the district who is registered to vote. And the mayor is required to set a date for the election (within 45 days of the vacancy) within three days after Mr. Gallagher’s resignation takes effect.
But even though the election is nonpartisan, political affiliation, the power behind it, will clearly play a central role in the candidates’ campaigns.
The Democrats are expected to coalesce behind Elizabeth Crowley, in part because her cousin, United States Representative Joseph Crowley, is the Democratic Party chairman of Queens. Ms. Crowley, a developer of educational programs for nonprofit agencies, is also a member of the local chapter of the Building Trades Council.
She is also the daughter of Walter and Mary Crowley, each of whom once represented many of the same Queens neighborhoods in the City Council. Ms. Crowley ran in 2001 against Mr. Gallagher and lost in this moderate- to conservative-leaning district. Indeed, as of the last filing period, in January, she had raised more than $70,000 toward a Council race, according to records of the New York City Campaign Finance Board.
“Elizabeth has been very interested,” Congressman Crowley said. “She has been doing the ground work and raising money and building support in the community. I haven’t heard of anyone else on the Democratic side who is interested. And, we would certainly put our support behind the candidate we think is best.”
The Republicans are clearly less harmonious in their consideration regarding Mr. Gallagher’s successor. Philip Ragusa, the party chairman, said the organization will support Anthony Como, a commissioner with the New York City Board of Elections and longtime aide to State Senator Serphin Maltese. Mr. Como, a former assistant district attorney in Queens, ran unsuccessfully for the Assembly in 2005, losing to Andrew Hevesi, the son of former State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi.
But Mr. Como will face stiff competition from Thomas V. Ognibene, who represented the 30th Council District for 10 years, immediately before Mr. Gallagher. In fact, Mr. Gallagher was the chief lieutenant for Mr. Ognibene for many of his 10 years in the Council.
Mr. Ognibene is well known in the district (he once sought the Republican nomination for mayor against Michael R. Bloomberg). But there are deep fissures in the Republican Party in Queens.
“I think there is a historical situation that goes way back,” Mr. Ognibene said, in an interview. “Phil Ragusa is part of the faction that resisted me when I ran for mayor. The fact of the matter is that he has always anti-Ognibene.”
Mr. Ragusa, in response, said that his opposition to Mr. Ognibene is based on the fact that the former Councilman has simply been less visible in the party than Mr. Como.
That view was echoed by Mr. Como. “I haven’t seen Tom Ognibene at any of the community board or civic group meetings in years,” he said. “It’s not what you did 15 years ago that counts, it’s what you’re doing now. And I am involved in what’s going on in this district now.”
